If you are living in KL and don’t know what Urbanscapes is, WHERE HAVE YOU BEENN?

Urbanscapes is this awesome festival of music, arts, lifestyle and film all under one roof (well, actually one padang but you get the point). Go shopping at the bazaars, watch local arts perform or see works of art in action!

In previous years, it was held in KLPAC which is rather hard to get to. This year, its held in a bigger and better place – Padang Astaka. And this year, the main sponsor is TM Everyone Connects – the people who brought you “Through My Window”. Plus, you can easily take public transport there.

TM presents Everyone Connects with Urbanscapes 2011
Venue : Padang Astaka, PJ
Date : 16th July 2011, Saturday
Time : 12pm – 12am
Lineup : Azlan & the Typewriter, Stone Bay, KyotoProtocol, Furniture, Ferns, They will Kill Us All, Khottal, Busco, Lapsap, Lab the Rat, Acts by The Movemint (Juzzthin, Figure of Speech, SCBTea, SSK, The Silk Road & DJ Garuda), Tilu, Liyana Fizi & Acts at Moonshine Record Store (Diandra Arjunaidi, Narmi, Asmidar, Darren Ashley, Az Samad, Aiqa Halim)

Tickets are on sale at the door for RM40 (early bird tickets are RM30 but I’m not sure if its still available) but I want to give some tickets to you, my readers for the total amount of….FREE!

There are three pairs, yeap, you heard that right, THREE pairs of tickets to win!

You are REQUIRED to do the below :

1. Follow @Urbanscapes on Twitter
2. ReTweet this: “RT @icednyior: @Urbanscapes 2011 Ticket GIVEAWAY – http://bit.ly/jiEoO3 #zestfulorg“
3. Comment with the link of your Tweet!

So start commenting and good luck!

Terms & Conditions

• Winners will be chosen using a randomizer (random.org) from the list of commenters below.
• Contest closes at 11.59pm on Thursday, 30 JUNE 2011. Please make sure you put in the correct email so that I can contact you if you win.
• If you are the winner, you  need to respond back to me by 12pm Friday, 1 JULY 2011 as I would need details such as your Full Name, IC number and contact number for ticket collection. Failing to do so by the stipulated deadline will forfeit your winning.
• You will have to self-collect your tickets by Friday, 8th JULY 2011 at the Freeform office : Freeform Sdn. Bhd., B-21-6, Block B, Jaya One, No 72A Jalan Universiti, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor MALAYSIA. Tel: (603) 7958-1377
• The judge’s decision is final

Added 30 June : Ok so apparently some people aren’t too sure how to get the link of their tweet. Its easy. Just go to www.twitter.com/yourusername and click on the time of the tweet. Like below. That will load your single tweet. Copy the link at the top and paste it in the comment :)

Also, if you are a private account, please approve my request to follow you or email me a screenshot of your tweet & proof that you follow @Urbanscapes to http://scr.im/icednyior

WINNERS for the Giveaway!

Collected all the comments below and used Random.org to randomize the list. The 3 winners are :

1. @jiesze
2. @ob_af
3. @bennimaru
4. @she723
5. @geekmy

I’ve sent an email to the winners. As mentioned, you must respond by 12pm Friday, 1 JULY 2011 as I need your details to be sent to Freeform so that you can start picking up your tickets next week. Failing to do so will forfeit your winnings and the person after you will get the tickets.

Edit: Gave out all tickets. See you guys at Urbanscapes!

Thank you everyone for participating! If you still want to get tickets, try your luck in the sites below :

• http://www.yogaretnam.com/events/tm-presents-everyone-connects-with-urbanscapes-2011/ (ends Sunday)
• http://bryanlyt.com/2011/06/urbanscapes-2011-free-tickets/ (ends Sunday)
• http://twitter.com/HanieHidayah/statuses/86514073709195264
• http://www.urbanscapes.com.my/news/2011/6/14/urbanscapes-tickets-up-for-grabs.html

I got invited to a blogger event organized by PlusSizeKitten & hosted by Malaya Optical in Uptown Damansara. We were all allowed to bring a couple of friends but my friends weren’t free / was lazy to go so I went alone.

Malaya Optical is a brightly light store with rows upon rows of eyewear ranging from specs frames to sunglasses. Its on the same row as Uptown 37 (where there’s Starbucks, Umai-Ya & HSBC) and before the Satay Haji Samuri.

Left: The hard working people at Malaya Optical. Right : Tammy welcoming everyone and giving away the prize for best FB post/comment/slogan

There were a lot of people in the shop but Ryan – the owner (I think), Optometrist & Professional Eyewear Stylist/Designer – was very friendly, asking if I have already registered and if I wanted coffee/tea (they have a small dispenser right at the corner, cute!) or a lollipop. They also had some refreshments outside (sandwiches and kuih).

Upon registering, we were required to line up to purchase our contact lenses. Oh, on the same day, they had a special one-day promotion on Facebook (join here!) where if you printed out the voucher, you can get the “Logic BigEyes” contact lens for RM15 a box (1 pair inside). Usual price is RM90. I picked up 2 boxes for myself (brown and black) and a couple more boxes for a friend. Will be reviewing this in my ShoestringBeauty blog soon!

Besides the special RM15 contact lens offer, we were also given two vouchers:

• a Comprehensive eye exam (worth RM150)
• Voucher for 1.50 Super Multicoated UV Protected worth RM150 (valid to 31 March 2011)

The eye test machine on the right is different from most machines I’ve seen in the sense that they have these rings around your iris which are differently coloured. I forgot to ask what the rings mean. They also did the usual round of Eye test with the different lenses. I found that my power/degree is pretty much the same but my astigmatism seems to have gone up a little. I asked about the astig and the guy said that, mine is not that serious as its less then 1.0, so that means I don’t have to change to toric lenses.

As you can see from the many compartments and boxes stacked up high, Malaya Optical is surely where you can get a lot of brands of eyewear. In fact, Ryan mentioned, “whatever brand you want, we have it.” I even saw high end brands like Miu Miu, Marc Jacob, CK and the like. Even for the contact lenses, they have a whole cupboard (with glass cover) of the different lenses – non-coloured and coloured. Even some really cool ones like the Glow in the dark and Jewel series types below.

Oh I’m also pleased that they carry Biomedics55 which is this really awesome non-coloured contact lens that I usually wear. It’s a bit more pricy but its super comfortable especially during long wearing times.

I left pretty early as I needed to go off someone and I made an appointed to do my eye test the next day as there were way too many people in the store on that day. But all in all, I found that all the staff in Malaya Optical were friendly and patient in explaining and answering questions – even when they had a lot of people in store.

Check out their history printed at the back of their card, their first store was way back in 1957! Explains the name doesn’t it? Pic frm Sugar Coated Muffin.

Left :“24 beers in a case, 24 hours a day. Coincidence? I think not.”
Right : Barley, hops, yeast and other ingredients used in beer brewing

At the end of last year, I received from Craft Brews for their Bloggers/January/Call-it-whatever-you-want party. For those of you who have not heard of Craft Brews, they opened mid December in Mutiara Damansara behind Proton and right next to Tesco & Petronas Station.

CRAFT BREWS is the new restaurant in town and it is anything but your regular beer and grub joint. This unique new outfit introduces the long-awaited brewhouse concept to Malaysia.

The non-halal restaurant comfortably seats 45 people indoors, and an additional 88 at the outdoor terrace for those who prefer to wine and dine al fresco. The extensive menu offers a variety of mouth-watering dishes, all designed to complement your pint of beer.

CRAFT BREWS will be serving four draft and 10 bottled beer selections where two coloured beers from the Singapore-based Reddot Brewhouse will be the restaurant’s signature, premium beers. This coloured duo – the Monster Green Lager and English Ale – will be served fresh on tap.

We were served dinner but I’ll talk more about that later. Then we had a beer tasting session. Apparently I actually know the guy who conducted it, Ben, who I met last Raya at Arai’s. I’m not a beer enthusiast so to speak (I prefer hard liquor myself) but it was interesting. Look at the pic above, the green ones is Monster Green Lager (light and one of my faves) and the reddish one is English Ale (pretty strong). Beer tasting is very similar to wine tasting. Swirl a small amount in a glass to aerate it a bit then look at the colour. Here are a few tips:

• To fully taste the flavour of the beer, you have to sip in some air as you sip in the beer. Try it! it seriously tastes different than just chugging it down.
• Beers that are light in colour are usually more hoppy tasting
• Beers can have other things added in them such as orange peel,or herbs. The green beer above, their famous “Green Monster” is brewed with spirulina (but there’s no yuckky spirulina taste, I can assure you)
• Salty and Sweet stuff compliments certain beers, depending on personal preference. Food in Craft Brews are specially prepared to compliment the beer they are serving

Honey Mustard Ribs, Tex-Mex Ribs, Homemade Potato Wedges & Eggplant “Chips”

I personally like the Honey Mustard Ribs with its sweet and slightly tangy sauce. The Tex-Mex is a bit spicy but nicely marinated in spices. Both ribs are big (in the pic u can see that its almost the diameter of the plate) and tender, fall off the bone. The Potato wedges are big and coated with batter. Very nice. The Eggplant “Chips” were anything but chips. This one had an Asian taste to it. Its like eggplant fried with small shrimp, onion and a bit of chilli.

Left (pic by spinzer) : Pretty beer towers all in a row.
Right : The other bloggers/twitter-ers that were there

Our goodie bag was really unique. Its a container with a Beer pass for 1 complimentary beer (1/2 pint) and ingredients to brew beer. From top left is Coriander, Orange Peel, Barley and Brewing Yeast (which I’m told is totally different from baking yeast). Interesting yes? I’ve yet to try it tho :P Has anyone else who went tried it yet?

Anyway, thank you Craft Brews for a night of food and drinks and great company :)

CRAFT BREWS is located at G3 Podium, Ground Floor, Menara Batu Kawan, No. 1, Jalan PJU 7/6, Mutiara Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. It is open daily from 12 noon till late and Happy Hours are 5pm-8pm daily. For reservations, please call 03-7722 3000. You can also catch em on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/CraftBrews) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/CraftBrews).

** some pics from joshuaongys (read his post here) and nigelais

Woot! First night out clubbing for 2010 and it was with my tweeple :D

Organized by @spinzer & @meiyingt (above) #twtclub was the first tweetup for 2010. The venue was Zeta Bar, KL Hilton where we paid RM40 each to open a bottle of Black Label & Chivas + mixers.

It was my first time driving to KL Hilton and I didn’t know that the security was so strict. They moved detectors (not too sure for what) under my car and even asked me to open the boot to inspect it. Parking at KL Hilton is RM8.00 flat rate if you are a patron at any of their restaurants/club/function but you must get a coupon from the receptionist.

A few “special guests” were invited – namely the team (two people turned up) behind @Digi_telco & @StarbucksMY. They were there as individuals and not under their company. It was nice to be able to see the faces behind the twitter accounts.

The band was quite good in Zeta Bar. Can’t remember their name but the male lead was a African American guy frm US (i think), the female singers were from Thailand & Philippines, then the musicians were from South Africa and other countries. Very 1Malaysia 1World. They sang songs from PCD, Lady Gaga, etc.

There are 2 types of people who go clubbing : (1) people who hit the dance floor and (2) the people who watch people dancing & getting drunk while they sit at the side :P I am of the latter. The rest had a great time dancing to various R&B hitz.

Enjoy the pics – some are taken by Euveng :D

The twitters who turned up : spinzer, meiyingt, davybates, joycescapade, williamnka, joshlim, kwangchen – thanks sooo much for paying for my parking :D, euveng, serpentinegal & royalshortness – who went back early :(, charliechia, kruel74, GSJone, and and…errr will add more later when I’ve had sleep.

Do drop comments if you’ve uploaded pics or wrote a blog post. Also if I’ve missed out your name.

All in all, it was an awesome tweetup and cant wait for another one soon :D

Tweet up – A meetup of people who use Twitter, also called Tweeters or Twitter-ers
Twestival - Event or festival organized under short timescales & 100% run by volunteers, for fundraising/charity.

Pic by @reubenhot

In this case, Twestival KL was run by a small organizing committee comprising of @Ling_chan @davidlian @Suanie @radianceleong @nigelais @Eevon @nikicheong and all proceeds were to be given to Destiny Starting Point, a home for delinquent youths in Klang to turn their life around.

I reached Mist Club Bangsar at around 7.10-7.15pm since it wasn’t very jammed, surprisingly. Got awesome parking in the front. Hehe! Walked in and saw the 1901 Hotdogs booth and some cupcakes frm Cupcake Chic. Was too stuffed to eat tho.

Pic frm @ramesstudios

Bumped into @cheechingy (who came with @spinzer who was busy running around taking pics, I think?) inside. What I first noticed was the cups of beer at the bar. Best part, it was free flow! Yay! *ran to bar instantly*

Will Quah was the emcee of the night and Elaine Daly also shared the stage for a bit. There was a lucky draw – the biggest prize being a lenovo computer and airasia tickets. There was also an auction of various merchandise. Twilight Action Girl (TAG) was on the decks.

Pic from @bryanlyt

In between cups of Tiger Beer, New Zealand Naturals Ice cream and 1901 Hotdogs, I managed to mingle around, exchange business cards and meet up with old and new friends. Click on their names to go to their blogs, I’m sure u can figure out the twitter links yourselves :P – @kruel74, @flyguy729, @JonYKT, @friedbeef, @vigneshraja, @veen1828, @Ling_Chan, @suanie, @royalshortness, @nikicheong, @aprilyim, @mikefoong, @peterpek, @demonick, @blogjunkie, @howard_u, @dustyhawk and a few more (leave a msg if i missed u out :D)

It was so awesome that we raised a total of RM10,000 for Destiny Starting Point + 2 Desktop PCs & 1 yr broadband sponsored by Digi. I didn’t realize there were so many tweeple in KL and so many people with Pokens – or Pokenauts as Will called them. Hehe!

All in all, great event! Click HERE for more tweets (+links & photos) on #twestivalKL

My Tweets that night : 

• RT @eyerizzz: wah the Twitterwall at #twestivalkl damn big. Ya have to squint to read it. #
• Starting the luckydraw at #twestivalkl with pokens frm @pokenasia and @starbucks #
• RT @StarbucksMY: Baristas serve you coffee, Bearistas are our stuffed bears #
• Happy to just drink beer while waiting 4 the lucky draw. Am holding @kruel74′s tix at well. #
• Jealous!! RT @meing: I WON A YEAR’S SUPPLY OF NEW ZEALAND ICE CREAM. #twestivalkl #
• Charity auction at #twestivalkl – now moleskins. #
• Hving nz icecream at #twestivalkl. Its finishing #
• Why didnt the dancers dance on stage? Cannot see. Fail lah. #twestivalkl #
• Sitting with @peterpek at #twestivalkl #
• Waiting for the lenovo and aisasia lucky draw at #twestivalkl #
• 1 chick just went up on stage thinking she won the grand prize. But wrong number chica #
• Twilight action girl on d decks at #twestivalkl. Awesome! #
• Leaving #twestivalkl. Great event tho minor glitches. Still,i had a good time #

Oh yes, the Goodie Bag! I have this quirk where I feel really excited every time I get a goodie bag. LOL!

# Crocs – Bag, smallsunshade, clapper balloon & keychain of miniature shoe (so cute!)
# Justea Green Tea + Lemon
# Little Trees – “Victory Lane” scent
# Digi – Lanyard (i got 2 but gave 1 to someone else) & Pen
# A1 Team – Cap & Bangle
# Starbucks Voucher for free drink
# Boost Juice Voucher for Buy 1 get 2nd at RM1
# GSC Cinemas Ticket for 2
# New Zealand Naturals Voucher for Buy 1 Large free 1 Regular
# Brochures from Cupcake Chic, Digi and The Little Trinket Company

I just came back from a blogger’s gathering. What blogger’s gathering, you ask? This one..

Its a blogger’s gathering organized by Evie of evelynholic and Calvin of recordedmoments. This is their 2nd annual gathering. They organized one last year but I couldn’t make it and cant remember what excuse did I use. lol!

Marche had some negative points last nite – the aircon had problems and the seating area was a bit cramped – but it was really fun to meet up with bloggers that I havent met before. Some looked familiar and others I haven’t even heard of their blogs (heh, sorry!).

I remember sitting down and chit chatting when I asked one of the bloggers (JenkinYat to be exact) if he was also in LYN and he said yes. Then when I mentioned my nick there then a few of them went “Ooooo..always see ur name everyway”. Yes, I know, i got nothing better to do nowadays. LOL!

Bloggers who attended :

• Evie
• Calvin
• Jenkin Yat
• Thomas
• Royal Shortness aka Brian David (At first I forgot ur name but i luckily I rmbred ur blog address for very obvious reasons.err..better no need to elaborate)
• Brian’s gf – Hsu Jen
• Chee Ching
• Itchy hands something something (sori forgot ur name)
• That nice guy who helped me open my bottle and got classes on weekends (sori , also forgot ur name)
• A Mirian girl (err.)
• Another Mirian girl (um..yea well)
• more people I don’t really remember their names/blog address. Will update again later

Yes, I am VERY BAD with names. Gotta wait for Evie to get back to us with the list (when and if she actually does). Hehe! Still, nice to meet you guys tho :D

p/s: We lepaked in SS2 opposite the police station and Ib saw me and only called me (on the phone) just as he left. Ceh! Din even tegur la? I merajuk now. Happy bday btw :P

I’ll be soo utterly busy this weekend.

• Friday evening – breifing on the hari bintang jatuh event (info) in Ampang
• Friday night – Will be up to my elbows in flour, sugar and cream cheese churning out goodies for Saturday
• Saturday – set up gerai and enjoy good music, poetry and shopping!
• Saturday night – I got something up but i cant rmbr as of now
• Sunday – fren invited to his place in Kajang for open hse, my neighbour also invited us for open house and Bebudak reban ayam also have a gathering in Cheras

How am I going to split myself to three on Sunday is still everyone’s guess. I have not confirmed for any of the 3 on sunday, scared too tired by then -_-

Have a fun filled weekend ppl!

This is going to be a quick update coz its going to be a busy weekend. Im currently trying to repair my clock coz I’ve been sleeping during the day and awake during the night. Currently I’ve been awake since 10pm. Hope to sleep early tonite. Big day tomorrow

Thursday
• [soon] Buy shoes for rehersal – need to get court shoes
• [9.30pm] Free screening for X-Files Movie @ Cineleisure
• [11.30pm] Meet with frens at Laundry for a little while

Friday
• [11 am] Gown collection
• [12-4pm] Rehersal for Graduation
• [6.30pm] Gath @ Ayam Goleks
• [9.00pm] LYN Drinking Gath @ Laundry (again)

Saturday
• [2pm] Registration
• [3pm] Graduation Ceremony
• [11.30pm] Gath Jiyde @ Keramat

And after that..pengsan tido. LOL! Told you I was busy

I got an email a few days back from Delinn inviting everyone to beramai2 dtg utk kenduri ayam gols Friday evening. Then alangz plak called me the next day. Then Delinn pm me on YM to ask if im going.

I had to meet him tonite because I accidently left my IC & credit cards with him. We were out and I was too lazy to bring my wallet so I passed the cards to him to hold. Then we parted ways last nite. When I was having lunch this afternoon, i realized that I didn’t have all those important cards.

So I paksa-ed him to go with me we decided to go together2 to meet them and have dinner. More like it was me having dinner because he already ate earlier. OH well, it was good meeting everyone. A lot of people turned up, more than the usual 4-5 people. Hehe! Lain kali buat lagi ye?

Pictures! More in my picasa album

From Kenduri Ayam …

From Kenduri Ayam …

From Kenduri Ayam …

Read other blog posts here : Delinn.

I knew everyone would be late so I took my own sweet time in going to the BBQ. I finished making my cakes the night before so I didn’t have to rush to prepare anything. Reached there around 5.30pm (they initially said to meet at 3pm). And saw that everyone was fanning an empty bbq pit.

What? “Inilah dipanggil BBQ Arang” Ohh…apparently Limah who was supposed to bring prawns & chicken tak sampai lagi. She said she’ll arrive around 6pm. Everyone was hungry so they started on the other food first – nasi goreng, ikan, kerang, j.co donuts, cakes, blueberry tart, salad.

Limah finally came loaded with chicken, prawns, potato salad and baked potatoes. Yey! Everyone was so happy to get to eat. The food was good (luckily lah, if not sure everyone will kutuk, “Dah la lambat, tak sedap plak tu” Hehehe!

I left rather early because I had other plans that night with Mr Distraction. He was kinda dissapointed because tak boleh follow. Oh well, next time la k? Anyway, they had a short meeting for the Gegar this year – tentatively it’ll be in Cherating and will cost RM70/adult. More info in ima’s blog here. More BBQ stories in Delinn & Lord Budak’s blogs. Pics from my camera here.

p/s: Siapa kata I merajuk? Takdelaaa